


The Drifter’s Assistant

by DestinyChick23



Category: Destiny 2 - Fandom
Genre: Action, Comedy, Cute, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Romance, Sex, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:22:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24763048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyChick23/pseuds/DestinyChick23
Summary: After you were injured in a Gambit match that went horribly wrong, The Drifter decides to care for you in your time of need; but how are you going to pay him back?“Alright Guardian.” He chuckles “You want to do something for me? I think I got an idea.” He finished wrapping your arm up and clapped his hands together “From this day forth, you’re my personal assistant!”
Relationships: Cayde-6 (Destiny)/Reader (mentioned), The Drifter & Female Guardian (Destiny), The Drifter (Destiny) x Guardian, The Drifter (Destiny)/Reader, The Drifter x Reader - Relationship, The Drifter x guardian
Comments: 8
Kudos: 115





	1. A Gambit Gone Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> What’s up everybody? This is actually my first Destiny fanfiction and I wanted it to be a Drifter x reader fic! What can I say? I have a soft spot for that rogue lightbearer! I’m going to be posting when I can due to work, but I hope you all enjoy this!
> 
> And by the way, I imagined the reader to be female

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and your teammates head out for a game of Gambit, but things go horribly wrong when you’re attacked by the primeval.
> 
> Warning: violence, and blood

Chapter 1: A Gambit Gone Wrong

The early morning sun rose in the distance of The Last City and shined into a small apartment meant for a single person. Your Ghost awoken from its re-charge and rang out an annoying tune as you slept in your single bed. You let out a large groan as you waved your arm to the hovering Ghost as if to tell it you were up and to knock it off with the annoying music.

The Ghost refused to stop until it saw you sitting up in your bed, your hair a complete mess and sleep still evident in your face.  
“Good Morning _________!” spoke your Ghost in a cheery tune “Are you ready for another beautiful day?”

“You mean another day of rounds and knocking off stuff on my list?” you replied, sleep evident in your voice as you got out of your bed and stretched “Then yeah, I’m ready.” You made your way to a small kitchenette to grab whatever food you had lying around to start cooking something to eat. Your Ghost followed you behind playing some cheery music like it did every morning and watched as you cooked your morning meal. Bacon and eggs, nothing beats the classics.

Your Ghost was a peculiar little thing. Very cheery, upbeat, tried to look at the best in everything even if it borderlines naïve, but most of all your Ghost loved music. You got along well with your Ghost and the little guy was always there for you in times of need. You even gave him a name: Bright. The reason that little mechanical Ghost was always following you? You were a Guardian. Well, to put it better, you weren’t an ordinary Guardian; you were The Chosen One. The one chosen by The Traveler himself or as everyone else would put it, you were “The Light’s incarnation”, The Hero of The Red War, the list goes on. Bright was assigned to you to bring you back from the dead as a Guardian and keep you safe from harm such as healing your wounds, or bring you back from the dead again if need be.He was your connection to The Light.

Your breakfast finished cooking and you automatically placed the bacon and eggs on a plate and began to chow down on your meal, looking through a data pad to see what your plans for today should be. You could go handle a group of Hive that formed near Titan, or maybe see what The Vex were up to and stir up trouble with them. Maybe the Cabal had something to offer today? Or maybe Spider had a deal or two he could make? To be honest, the whole day was yours and yours alone, you could do whatever you wanted with it and no one could stop you.

As you began to try and figure out your day, Bright suddenly began to buzz. “Guardian,” he spoke “I have an incoming comm from Samson. He seems to want to have a chat.” a smile appeared on your face hearing those words, Samson was another Guardian and happened to be a very good friend of yours. He was the captain of your Fireteam, your clan leader and one of the few people who could care less you were The Chosen One. You nodded to your Ghost to accept the call and began the conversation.

“Morning Samson!” you greeted as you scarfed down some eggs.  
_“Morning _________!”_ Samson greeted _“You just woke up?”_  
“About ten minutes ago. I just started eating breakfast, what’s up?”

 _“I called you because I was wondering if you were up for a Gambit match today?”_ Samson asked _“I already called our favorite twins Aura and Fauna and they loved the idea. I wanted to ask if you were free today?”_ Gambit. A mysterious game that just appeared one day out of nowhere. The creator of the game, a mysterious man called The Drifter whom was a rouge Lightbearer from the Dark Ages started gathering guardians all over the galaxy, pit them against each other in a 4v4 match where each team had to defeat enemies, collect Motes, and once they reached 75 motes (100 in Gambit prime) in the bank, they would summon a Primeval and have to defeat it before the other team did.  
The Drifter became quite popular amongst The Guardians to the point of having a small fan base and the Vanguard didn’t argue with his methods(despite them being possibly illegal on so many levels) plus, he did seem quite an interesting man. You wouldn’t admit this; but you had a small crush on him. The only one who knew of course was Bright and possibly Samson.

“Count me in!” you cheered to your team captain, your fork lifted up in a happy manner “What time?”  
_“Around noonish?”_ Samson lulled. You looked at a nearby digital clock and realized it was 7:30 in the morning, just about six and a half hours from then _“I think he’s at Emerald Coast today. Rumor claims he has business to handle over there, I don’t know.I do know one thing for certain, I think he’ll be happy to see you.”_ a small blush appeared on your cheeks hearing this, was he pushing your buttons?

“W-well of course he would.” you tried to wave “I’m supposed to be The Chosen One, you know how everyone gets meeting me. All excited and whatnot. Everyone tries to get near me, as well as take advantage of me…” you muttered the last part, knowing how some people tried to take advantage of you in the past.

_“I don’t think it’s just that.”_ Samson suddenly confessed _“I think he’s taking a liking to you ________, call me crazy; but I think he gets excited when he sees you. Fauna said he noticed The Drifter eyes you a lot.”_  
“Like I said,” you waved again “he just likes to see that The Chosen One is playing his little scheme. I’m used to this type of behavior by now. Besides, I haven’t even spoken one word to him so far.. ”

_“Alright; but don’t say I didn’t warn you. We’ll be outside your apartment around 11am.”_ with that said, he hung up allowing you to place your fork down and let out a huge groan. There was just no way Samson could be right. Could he be right?

#

A few more hours passed and you soon found yourself dressed in your Hunter gear along with your best weapons strapped to you and your Ghost, singing a merry little tune right next to you, ready to kick butt and take names. Once you reached the stairwell, you found at the bottom of the stairs a human male in Titan gear and next to him, two lavender skinned Awokens with dark blue hair (a male and female), both dressed in Warlock clothing. The human was Samson, the male Awoken was Fauna and the female Awoken was Aura, twins who were also your teammates and clan mates.

“There’s our favorite Hunter!” smiled Samson before pulling you into a hug “Ready for some Gambit?”  
“You bet.” you smiled as Samson patted your back.  
“It would seem that The Drifter might have some new gear he plans on giving out in Gambit.” Fauna suddenly spoke somewhat monotone.

“We could use some new gear.” Aura added also in a monotone “All of our gear is growing old.”  
“Well I wouldn’t mind a few good blasters or sniper rifles.” you confessed to the twins “But I’m actually looking to move out of my apartment. Starting to get a little cramped.” your Ghost nodded in agreement as he found his favorite spot to recharge was starting to get a bit cluttered.  
“Well hopefully today could be enough to make a down payment!” smiled Samson “Let’s take my ship, it has enough room to fit us all.” everyone nodded in agreement to Samson’s idea and summoned their Ghosts so they could transmat to Samson’s ship.

#  
  
The Derilect was a run down ship that was actually quite larger than it appeared. It looked like an old cargo ship that was now towing a miniature planet behind it. What was inside that planet, no one except The Drifter knew. You and your team entered

The Derilect and signed up for today’s match, automatically taking your places on the transmats as did the team opposite of you. On a tower overlooking the teams, The Drifter, a human male with Asian descent, cropped hair, light eyes and scars on his face wearing a trench coat, gi, belts, pants, high boots some minor armor and multiple guns slung to him walked onto the tower. But one thing that caught everyone’s attention, was his interesting jade pendant. A pendant of twin snakes coiled together and ready to bite each other. Jade was pretty rare these days.

He looked around the group of Guardians before him and immediately recognized your’s and your team’s armor. His expression changed a tiny bit and he gave you a small smile and nod. You blushed underneath your helmet and returned the nod to him.

“Alright Mavericks,” he began as he tossed a jade coin he had around with multiple others “Let’s see what you’re fighting today.” with his last trick finished, he took the coin and showed the symbol on it “Hive! Bring a sword!” you perked up a bit hearing that. The Hive were a culture of aliens that worshipped The Darkness like a deity, or in your case, easy kills.

"You can burn Hive guts for a fire in the wild. It's toasty!" The Drifter commented as you and your team equipped the proper weapons for this challenge. “Transmats are a go!” The Drifter announces as he lifted his arms and threw them down, teleporting you both to the arena where you would be fighting for motes.

 _“Hostiles incoming at the trees!”_ The Drifter’s voice called over comms, you and your teammates raced to the trees nearby where a group of Hives began their attacks. You shot at the freaks of nature with your pillager, killing a group of them and leaving nothing but sweet and beautiful motes to be collected. You, along with Samson, Fauna and Aura ran to the large quantity to collect them as you continued your assault on the hostiles heading your way.

The hostiles soon we’re wiped clean of this area leaving you with ten motes immediately. _“Hostiles incoming at the beach!!”_ The Drifter called out on the comms. Before you made your way to the beach, you headed over to the bank and deposited the motes into the bank.  
_“Wooh! Ten motes in one trip?”_ Drifter cheered _“You’re makin’ this look too easy!”_ There was a scoreboard and monitor in the sky which showed the teams’ scores and what the other team was up to. You and your teammates, being the Gambit veterans you all were, banked every mote they could and soon reached about 30 motes in one round.

 _“Portal’s open!! Go say hello!”_ Drifter spoke in a sneaky tone, with a quick nod, Aura ran through the portal to the other team’s side, ready to invade and lower the opposing team’s chances _“Your ally’s invading!”_ as the invasion took place, you and your team handled the Hostiles and banked more motes into the bank, able to send a few Taken to the other side. You quickly glanced at the scoreboard and saw the score: 40-13. It looks like Aura is really keeping them busy over there.

 _“Your ally returned and killed a whole team!”_ The Drifter cheered and you could actually hear him jumping up and down from his seat in excitement _“Hostiles incoming at the ruins!”_ you suddenly felt a huge amount of power surge through your body which made you realize you were ready for your Supercharge. With a swift flick of your wrist, you summoned a bow staff made from pure electricity and raced towards the Hives, killing about three enemies at a time and creating a large pool of motes that were immediately collected by Samson, Aura and Fauna.

“Great work ______!” Samson spoke to you over comms. “You really made it easy.” Fauna added as he gathered over five motes.

“This game has been too easy.” Aura admitted “The other team doesn’t know what they’re doing, I seen a few of them die at the hands of Hive before they could get a single mote.” the four of you made your way to the bank and deposited your motes, boosting your score to 65. _  
_

_“Hey!”_ The Drifter spoke over the comms “ _You almost have enough to summon a Primeval! Keep bankin’ those motes!”_ you once again look up at the scoreboard to see the time and score. About two minutes left and your twenty points ahead. Thank the Traveler Drifter gave an additional two minutes when fighting a Primeval. Moments passed and soon you found yourselves with ten more motes. With a quick trip to the bank, you and your team deposited them and watched as the bank closed and slid into the ground.

 _“You summoned a Primeval!”_ The Drifter called out over comms _“Kill it to win this!”_ You watched with complete ready as the Primeval began to form, you transmitted your top weapon into your hand and prepared yourself.

“Get ready!” Samson hollered to everyone. The Primeval took the form of a Primeval Ogre. A few lackeys of the Primeval were summoned, causing you and your team to pay attention to them first before going after the big guy. You shot at them with your pillager and watched as the health bars depleted at a significant rate. Eventually, you reached the point it was time to take on Ogre.

You pulled out your rocket launcher, which was loaded beyond belief with ammo (you were kind of a hoarder with that) and launched a few missiles at the Primeval. While you and your team began to work towards the beast’s health depletion, something peculiar happened.The Primeval suddenly let out a large roar into the air and shook violently. It began to make its way over to you, and an intention was on its mind.

“What the hell?!” Samson hollered over comms. Once he realized what was happening he looked over to you “______! Run!!!!” feeling your fight or flight response kick in, you began to run from the scene as fast as you could so the Primeval couldn’t catch you; but damn that rock that made you lose your footing and fall onto the ground face first. You quickly began to scramble as the Primeval grew closer to you but soon found yourself in it’s hands. Clutching you like a child with it’s toy, squeezing you too tightly like a stress ball.

“Oh by the Traveler!” Samson screamed before turning to the comms “Drifter?! What the hell is going on?!”

_“How the hell should I know?!”_ The rogue LightBearer replies _“I’m just as puzzled as you guys!”_ The Primeval took you and began to bang your entire being against nearby pillars, causing a few ribs in your rib cage to break and stab your internal organs, you coughed up blood.

The Drifter watched in utter shock as this continued and began to make a mad dash for the off switch. Once he flicked the switch, he noticed an immediate problem: the game was still going on. “Drifter!” Samson hollered “What’s going on here?!”  
_“I’m trying to shut the damn thing off!”_ he screamed _“It’s not working! I’m goin’ to have to find the emergency switch!”_

“You better hurry because I don’t think she could handle it for that long!” Fauna intervenes.

As the Drifter began to make a mess of the control room, the Primeval began to squeeze you tighter and tighter in its hand, distinct crack and crunch noises could be heard and you let out a blood curdling scream. The scream was so loud everyone on the planet could hear it. The Primeval let out a roar of its own at the sound and continued to crush you before a ray of light zapped it in the back. It was Bright, they transmatted into reality and began to attack the Primeval with pure rage and fierce protectiveness of you.

“Get away from my Guardian!” he hollered before zapping the Primeval again. The Primeval began to swat at your Ghost only to miss a few times thanks to his evasiveness and get zapped again. However, the third time it swung, the Primeval got lucky and swatted it to the nearby ruins.

“BRIGHT!” you scream in horror. A sudden bullet shot at the Primeval, causing it to divert its attention from you again.  
“Get the hell away from her!” The shooter angrily screamed. It was Samson, who was now royally pissed that not one, but two of his teammates were injured. He considered your Ghost along with his and the twins’ Ghosts part of the team and clan. The Primeval stared down at him as he continued to shoot. Until finally, the Primeval Ogre grew bored with you and flung you across the field into the nearby ruins. When they did, your back hit some rubble and a crack! could be heard. Your back was broken and you had a concussion.

“Aura!” Samson ordered “Go find _________ and Bright! Fauna and I will do everything in our power to handle the big guy.” Aura nodded in agreement and raced away from the situation to find you. Aura soon found herself in the ruins and found your Ghost, lying on the ground, damaged and jittering as if to try and force itself to hover. Aura made her way over to the little companion of yours and gently scooped it in her hands as if it was a wounded animal. She continued to walk through the ruins until finally finding a pile of rubble nearby and a small pool of blood.

Aura almost dropped your Ghost in horror at the sight of you. You were badly beaten, cut, bruised, and bleeding. Aura wasn’t sure whether to scream or faint. She soon snapped out of her small trance and ran to your side, doing everything in her power to check your vitals and sighing in relief when she felt a pulse.  
  
“It’s going to be okay.” She tried to soothe “You’re going to be fine _______________.” As Aura tried her best to keep you calm and watch over you, the skyline suddenly changed in colors to a more reddish tone: an invader. “Of all times.” she muttered under her breath. Aura stood herself up and readied her weapons. You let out another cough filled with blood as Aura began to search feverishly for the invader. You and her looked on in surprise as the invader passed you, completely ignoring you and began to shoot at the Primeval. Samson and Fauna looked on in total shock.

“My whole team saw the entire thing.” The invader explained “We had to help some way. They sent me in to help take this monstrosity down since I’m one of their stronger teammates.” Aura nodded and smiled at the invader as if to thank them and joined in at shooting the Primeval. “Just hang on ___________.” Aura told you “Everything will be okay!”

#

The Drifter watched the whole thing play out as he continued to haphazardly look for the emergency off switch, his own Ghost silently searched around the room for the button as well, trying to help in the situation anyway it can. The Drifter, who was around for centuries you would think was used to seeing things like this; but you were special. One of his best Guardians and now here you were, bloodied and on the verge of death. In truth, he’d never get used to this.

“Damnit damnit damnit!” He continuously cursed and started to curse a few more times in several alien languages “Where’s that switch?! The kid ain’t gonna last out there!” As he continued to tear the room apart, his Ghost suddenly whistled to him, calling over his attention and moving a small data pad to reveal underneath the pad a large red button: the emergency switch coated in a small glass box.

“You really are good for somethin’.” The Drifter complimented his Ghost for once in his life (which even surprised the Ghost itself) with a swift punch, the glass broke and the button was pressed. Your team shot two more bullets at the monstrosity and managed to defeat the Primeval at the same time. Not only ending the problem; but winning the round. Once the effects of the Emergency shut down came in, you and your team were transmatted into the ready room along with the opposing team. The Drifter rushes to your side to see the damage.

#

The Transmatting didn’t do any favors to your injuries. Thanks to it, you began vomit out blood and collapsed onto the cold, metal floor. Everything hurts. Breathing, your organs, your head, you couldn’t feel the lower half of your body, your arms refused to respond to you. Oh God Almighty, end this nightmare! Your vision began to grow blurry and most of the voices around you were muffled; but you heard a distinct voice calling out to someone nearby.

“Get the emergency medical kit!” you heard “She’s losin’ blood fast!” you looked up to the best of your ability to see The Drifter pressing down on a few of your more serious cuts, trying to stop the bleeding and at least trying to keep you alive “What happened to her Ghost?! Get the damn thing over here!!! That tool has to heal her right now!” he looked down for a moment and noticed you staring back at him with listless eyes. He did his best to keep a strong face with you and keep his usual composure. “It’s gonna be okay sister.” he tried to ease you “You’re gonna be just fine, I promise. Hold on Guardian… hold on……” as he said that, your world soon became black.


	2. The Derelict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being severely injured by the primeval, you find yourself coated in bandages and in an unknown bed. The only one who can tell you where you are and what happened, is the owner of the ship himself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey gang!! Thank you everyone for the kudos, bookmarks and comments!! It really means a lot! I hope you’ll enjoy this chapter I have cooked up for you!

Chapter 2: The Derilect

_You walked across a beautiful field of grass, wearing a white dress, completely barefoot and your hair down. It was a nice change from your usual armor and sweaty underclothes. The feeling of grass hit your bare feet and individual strands tickled your ankles. The sun felt warm against your skin as you walked through the field. You felt a hand slide against the palm of yours causing you look behind yourself and find The Drifter._

_He was standing behind you, wearing a green button up shirt, black pants, his usually short, messy hair was combed as well as his beard. He too was barefoot, but he didn’t have his usual bandana on and he still wore his signature necklace and a smile plastered on his face. It wasn’t like his usual smile; no, this one seemed loving to you._

_The Drifter came closer to you and picked you up, twirling you around in the air for a moment before bringing you closer and pulled you into a loving kiss._

_**Is this what you want?** A voice suddenly called out. You stopped mid kiss to look to where the voice had come from and found an Awoken woman in a large hoodie like cloak, one foot completely bare while the other was dyed black and had a white string tied around it. Something about this woman sent a chill down your spine. And not in a good way. **How long do you plan to keep pining for something that will never happen?** The Awoken asked without her lips moving even the slightest inch._

#

Your eyes shot open and your breathing became labored. Your body was coated in sweat as you breathed the best to your ability to let your heart rate calm down. Your eyes began to glance around the room and noticed immediately it wasn’t your own. Fear filled your veins for a moment until you began to calm yourself down and look at the room in a more calm manner. No, this room seemed to be made from old metal, and had gun pieces and armor lying around. You were lying in a large, plush bed and coated with two or three sheets, and three large, fluffy pillows supported you. To your side was a large window with a gorgeous view of Earth, at the nightstand next to you, was a large plate with wrappings, bandages of all kind and iodine.

You blinked for a moment before trying to sit up. Only to meet excruciating pain that forced you to lay back down. It was at that moment you began to study your body. You were covered in nothing but gauze, wrappings, medical tape and you stunk of iodine and rubbing alcohol. You looked at a nearby mirror and noticed your head was covered in wrappings, several small bandages were on your face and your eye socket was bruised. You heard the sound of footsteps coming in the distance and you did your best to look up until the owner of the footsteps finally appeared.

It was The Drifter, and he was carrying a tray with hot soup and a glass of water. He looked to you in surprise but then smiled at the sight of you wide awake.

“Knew it would take more than a damn Primeval to kill ya hotshot.” He smirked as he made his way to your bedside to place the soup on a nearby free space on the nightstand “Glad to see ya back with the livin’!”

“Ugh man.” You finally gurgled out in a low, raspy voice “I feel like shit.”

“That’s just the injuries.” The Drifter explained “Your Ghost did everything he can to keep ya kickin’.”

“My Ghost?” You asked as the memories began to flood back “By the Traveler! Bright! Is-“

“Your tool is fine.” The Drifter soothed “It got some decent damage; but it will be okay. Your male Awoken friend managed to fix it. ‘Said it would take a few weeks for it to fully function again. It’s been healing you little by little, and he’s charging right now.” You sighed and nodded in response as well as made a mental note to thank Fauna later when you spoke to him.

“Where are we?” You rasped out to him. The Drifter gave you a smirk hearing that question.

“You’re on the Derilect!” He smirked “Or should I say, my home. You’re in my guest room actually. Never used it ‘til now.” Your eyes shot out of your skull for a moment when hearing this. You were literally staying on his ship?! The only time you’ve ever been on the Derilect was when it was for Gambit; but you’ve actually never explored or seen any of the rooms before. To be honest, you don’t think anyone has. The Drifter never really struck you as someone who likes a lot of company.

“That Primeval really did a number on you.” The Drifter suddenly confesses a bit somberly“We thought we were gonna lose you.”

“How long was I out?” You ask.

“A week and a half, you were a mess. My Ghost had to help with healing you a bit as well. Since you weren’t in any state to give permission, your tool gave its blessing. Broken spine, concussion, internal bleeding, ‘blown out vocal chords. Sister, you were probably gonna knock on death’s door that day!”

You blinked at his revelation at your diagnosis. You were that bad? As you thought for a moment, you took notice that you subconsciously moved your foot and could feel the texture of the bed under your feet, you could even wiggle your toes.

“My Ghost was the one to heal your spine.” The Drifter confessed “It was a lot of damage; but it managed to get it done.” You nodded and softly thanked him.

“What happened with the ma-“ you tried to ask, your voice cracking.

“Your team won the first round because you defeated the Primeval before the emergency switch activated.” The Drifter cut you off “I ended the entire match because of what happened. The opposing team’s captain met with one of your teammates while I took you out of the room for treatment, and they agreed to call it a draw. When Gambit is up again, you guys will have a rematch.”

“When Gambit is up again?”

“Gambit and Gambit Prime are closed for now.” The Drifter explained “I closed it for repairs. That Primeval shouldn’t have targeted ‘ya the way it did. Never seen it pull that before and hand to The Traveler I would feel guilty if those things made ya or another Guardian take a dirt nap. So I closed it until further notice.”

“But what about your income? “ you ask.

“Aww look at ya.” The Drifter chuckles and ruffles your hair “You care about Ol’ Drifter? I’ll be fine! Yeah Gambit is my main source; but I got other “side businesses” runnin’. They’ll keep me floating ‘til then. But for now, I’m more concerned about your recovery.” You felt your cheeks grow a bit red at those words before a grumbling noise could be heard. 

“Looks like you're ready to eat an entire army of Hives.” Joked the Drifter. He moved over to the table and lifted the bowl of soup with a spoon in it closer to him. He dipped the spoon into the soup, allowing the orange colored soup to fill the spoon before blowing on it. Wait, was he going to feed you?!

“Since you seem like you can’t use your arms right now,” The Drifter explained “Ol’ Drifter will help you out. Now open wide....” he leaned the spoon forward to your mouth as you opened it and suddenly felt your cheeks grow hot. It definitely wasn’t the heat from the soup.

Managing to find the courage, you opened your mouth as Drifter took the spoonful and placed it into your mouth. The soup, tasted a bit weird, but wasn’t bad to be honest. You heard rumors The Drifter has a peculiar appetite for certain types of meat and food (Hive, Vex, etc) so it was of best interest not to ask what the soup was made from, albeit you may end up hurting his feelings or vomit at the revelation of what this stuff was made from.

“Not bad.” You coughed after swallowing, trying not to gag from the sudden intake of food. The Drifter leaned into you a glass of water to wash down that gagging feeling in your throat.

“You haven’t eaten much lately so your body isn’t used to getting much food.” The Drifter confesses “I would start with soft foods like soup before working back to solids. Meaning you’ll be eating Ol’Drifter’s cooking until you’re back on you’re feet.” You weren’t sure whether to be excited, or fearful.

#

After the uncertain lunch you’ve shared with The Drifter, pure but peaceful silence fell into the room, making you feel somewhat at home. The Drifter joined you for lunch a few spoonfuls in, and once both were finished, two bowls with remnants of your lunches lied on the table. And you have to admit one thing; The Drifter wasn’t a bad cook after all.

“You enjoyed it?” He asked, seeming to want your approval.

“It was good.” You smiled at him “Thank you and thank you for everything..” you blushed a bit at the last part.

“Hey,” he admitted “You’re in this mess because of me. The least I can do is help you out..”

“What happened wasn’t your fault.” You grunt as you tried to sit yourself up “It’s not your fault that primeval went berzerk.”

“It is my fault since it was my game.” The Drifter deadpanned “You’re in this mess because I put you there-“

“But I _chose_ to join your game.” You pointed out “I love Gambit, and so does my fire team. It’s literally my favorite pastime. Don’t beat yourself up for my sake. Please.” The Drifter stared into your ______eyes and saw that you were serious. He let out a very long sigh before looking you in the eyes again.

“Alright.” He nodded “For your sake hotshot.” You smiled at his words and tried to motion for a hug, only to grunt for a second “Woah easy there! You don’t wanna open those wounds!” he let out a small chuckle “Speaking of those wounds, when was the last time I changed their bandages?”

You blinked at his question and looked down at yourself and you realized one thing; you had nothing but a set of pants on and bandages. You were pretty much half naked. You were half-naked. In front of The Drifter. The man whom you’ve developed a crush on.

“U-um Drifter.” You swallowed “Maybe it’s best I do my band-“

“Don’t worry.” Drifter eased “I looked away at the uh… “private areas” when bandaging you.” You noticed a blush beginning to appear on his cheeks… wait, The Drifter can blush?!

“Come on,” he smiled as he began to unwrap your chest bandages “Let’s get you bandaged up!”The Drifter began to lean in closer to you and unwrap the bandages on your chest, the thick layers began to grow thinner and thinner until revealing a few blood covered bandages. Once The Drifter removed the remaining bandages, you began to see large gashes and bruises from where the Primeval had injured you. It was somewhat hard to swallow to look at them.

“I’m gonna get the iodine.” The Drifter suddenly spoke. You glanced over to him and noticed he was doing his best to not look at your bare chest. He filled a set of cotton swabs with the brown liquid before placing them on your wounds, doing his best to clean each wound thoroughly and not stare at your bare chest. Once he finished, he grabbed the bandages and began to wrap your torso back up in the fresh and clean bandages.

He then made his way to the other side of the bed and began to grab your left arm. As he began to unwrap the bandages on your arm, you began to clear your raspy throat.

“Um, Drifter.” You spoke up.

“Hmm?” hummed Drifter.

“I wanted to ask you if there’s anything I can do for you to repay you for caring for me?”

“There’s nothing that you can hotshot.” He chuckled “I can handle a lot of stuff.”

“No, I insist.” You pleaded “You cared for me for an entire week and a half. Made food for me, changed my bandages and let me stay on your ship while I recover. I really want to do something for you to thank you.” The Drifter stared into your eyes for a brief minute and seen you were serious about this. He glanced back at your arm and began to let out a small chuckle.

“Alright Guardian.” He chuckles “You want to do something for me? I think I got an idea.” He finished wrapping your arm up and clapped his hands together “From this day forth, you’re my personal assistant!”


	3. Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that The Drifter has decided to make you his personal assistant, you and The Drifter share a discussion about different topics. But does he have something else in mind for you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey gang! Sorry I took so long to post! I’ve been really busy the past few weeks and I finally got around to posting the new chapter’! I hope everyone enjoys!

Chapter 3: Recovery

You blinked in surprise as he smiled down at you after his new declaration. His personal assistant? You didn’t expect to hear those words out of his mouth! To be honest, you heavily expected him to make you go out into the galaxy and find some rare items or something of that nature to pay him back. Something illegal for damn sure.

“Y-your assistant?” You swallowed in surprise.

“That’s right!” He smirked as he moved onto your legs to wrap them “You’re now my personal assistant! I do have deals that I think only you can handle now that I think about it. Plus, I need someone to help me with scheduling, set up meetings, run errands, all that garbage. It will only be a few weeks.Why? Is that a problem?”

Your face turned bright red at his question.

“N-no!” You swallowed “It’s great! I’m just really surprised you agreed is all!” You let a minute pass as you allowed your cheeks to cool down “Yeah I can do that! Sounds good to me!” Hey, at least it wasn’t going to be just booty call as a way to make it up to him. Besides, maybe this was a chance to get to know him better? 

“Alright alright alright!” Drifter smirked “From now on until your debt is paid off, you’re my personal assistant! First order is to rest up as much as you can. Can’t have my assistant keelin’ over on me on the job now can I? Your first real assignment will come once you’re better.” He finished the last of your wrappings before placing the covers back over your body and surprisingly fluffing your pillow “Now, rest.” 

_**BZZT BZZT BZZT.**_

A vibration ran through the air and soon, Bright appeared out of thin air. His Shell was damaged in some areas and you noticed a minor jitter in his levitation. Oh how you wanted to reach out and hug your little companion, in both relief and comfort. 

“___________,” Bright spoke to you “I’m so glad you’re alright! I hate to interrupt you both; but Samson is calling you.” “Samson?” You rasped out, you looked at your new “boss” and he gave a sigh. “Let’Em talk.” He said “But don’t make it long. She still needs to rest.” Bright nodded and allowed a hologram of Samson, Aura and Fauna to appear. 

_“_________!”_ Samson cheered _“You’re awake!”_  
“I woke up an hour ago.” You confessed to your fire team captain “Drifter over here filled me in on what happened.”  
_“We thought you would never wake up.”_ Fauna confesses _“Your injuries were quite severe.”_  
“Feels like it, that’s for damn sure.” You grunted. 

_“After you were injured, The Drifter made his Ghost heal you, with Bright’s blessing of course.”_ Aura explained _“Once you weren’t in a state of constant bleeding, he carried you out of the place and to the main area of his ship. He wouldn’t let anyone see you until now.”_  
“Well she was in no shape!” The Drifter chimed in “She still isn’t!I mean look at her! She can barely sit up on her own or use her arms much!”

 _“Either way,”_ Samson ignores the Dark Age rogue _“we’ve been nothing but worried about you ___________. A lot of people have been asking about you and we had to make up an excuse to the Vanguard on where you’ve been. So far they’re buying it; but for how long we’re not sure.”_

“You let Ol’Drifter handle the Vanguard, kids.” The Drifter added in “I ain’t letting them get near my assistant right now.” You blushed a tiny bit at the fact he just called you his assistant to your fire team so freely and not even batting an eye at the new “employee” status you’ve earned. You glanced over to your teammates to see their reactions. Aura and Fauna sat there surprised at this revelation and Samson gave a knowing look to you as if to say: _”I told you so.”_

“By the way, Fauna,” you try to change the subject “thank you for fixing Bright. It means a lot.”

 _“I’m glad I could be of some help.”_ Fauna smiles.

 _“Hey _______,when you’re better, you want to grab some noodles at The Traveler’s Ramen?”_ Samson asked you.  
“You know I’m always down for a bowl.” _“They brought back the Titan Bowl! You going to cheer me on as I try to complete the challenge?”_  
“I always will!” You laugh before feeling a small amount of pain in your ribs and grunting a tad bit.

“Alright alright alright!” The Drifter suddenly waved crassly “Time’s up! She’s in need of her rest! Call her back another day!” He began to wave at Bright to turn the call off, surprising you and your teammates at how much of a mother hen he was acting right now.

_“We’ll call you soon __________.”_ Samson wryly smiles _“Go get your rest.”_ “Bye guys!” You smiled before Bright hung up and disappeared from reality. 

You suddenly felt the Drifter’s gloved hands begin to tuck you into the plush bed you were lying in.  
“Time for you to rest.” The Drifter ordered “I’ll wake you up ‘round dinner time. Need anything just holler or send yer Ghost for me. Okay hotshot?” You nodded at his orders “Can I get ya anything before I go?”

“There is one thing.” You requested “Can you please summon your Ghost?” The Drifter looked at you in confusion. “Why the hell you want to see it?” He asked, still stunned.  
“I want to talk to your Ghost for a moment.” You explained. He looked at you with questioning eyes for a moment before sighing.

“Fine.” He waved. He held the palm of his hand out for a moment to summon the robotic creature, who blinked its red eye at him “She wants to talk to ya.” The Ghost left his hand and hovered its way over to you, blinking it’s red eye with curiosity, not a single word coming from it. The Drifter, along with his Ghost were surprised when you somehow managed to find strength in your right arm and gently stroked The Ghost’s shell, taking it aback for a moment. It wasn’t used to this kindness. 

“I asked The Drifter to call you out here because I wanted to thank you.” You smiled at the Ghost “From both me and Bright, you helped us in a time of need and I’m forever grateful. Thank you.”

The Ghost looked at you with complete surprise, no one has ever thanked him before. Not even his own Lightbearer! This was the first someone ever thanked him for something and…. It felt…… _great_. All these years, he thought he wasn’t necessary, that The Drifter only kept him around since he did have some use with his deals, but it made the Ghost feel great that he was able to do something to help. With a sudden beep beep! The Ghost bounced up and down in the air and then made its way back to its Lightbearer.

“First time I seen it this chipper in a long time.” Drifter commented before standing up from his chair “All right, now you need to rest, I got an important call to make.” He and his Ghost turned on a heel to the door way to head to what you believed would be his work station. 

“Drifter?” You called out. 

“Yeah hotshot?”

“Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you’ve done for me.” The rouge Lightbearer blinked at you with surprise before giving you a sincere smile. 

“Don’t need to go and thank me Sister.” He smiles “You still breathin’ is enough. Now, rest up.” He turned to his Ghost who lowered the lights. Making your room completely dark. The Drifter began to walk out of the room with his Ghost as you blinked your eyes and was still trying to process everything that had happened in the past hour. 

You couldn’t even believe The Drifter would make you his personal assistant! And that call with your team, man, he seemed like something was bugging him throughout that call. You would’ve asked him about it; but you didn’t want to trigger something. 

The Drifter was definitely a lot different than you anticipated. But you had to be honest, never in your life did you anticipate to be having a full conversation with your crush. You and him only said _“hello”_ to each other once and a while; but never held a conversation. 

You groaned a little bit, especially at how much you blushed at half the things he did. You never should tell your fire team about this and make Bright swear not to tell a soul. Then again, after The Drifter made it clear you were now his assistant, your team was never going to let you live this down. Especially Samson since he made it clear he thought The Drifter had some form of interest in you. 

Maybe he was planning to use you? You are The Chosen One after all, and if rumors were as reliable as they could be, he probably has something up his sleeve with the idea of making you his assistant. One rumor claimed he was looking for a crew and you wouldn’t be surprised if you were on his invite list due to your “status”. You did your best not to think about it since your mind would go to a dark place and soon enough, you felt the pull of sleep win you over.

#  
  


Like promised, The Drifter woke you up around dinner time and fed you a porridge which had an odd purple hue. You sure as hell didn’t want to know what it was; but it didn’t taste so bad. There was some vegetables which you knew immediately to be from earth, so you mentally sighed in relief knowing your new found “boss”’s eating habits didn’t entirely revolve around alien meat or byproducts. 

Once you both sat in the comfort of silence. There was one moment that Drifter offered to help you bathe; but you quickly shut that down and asked him to just help you to his bathroom so you can do so yourself since you managed to get some form of mobility back in your arms. After your short bath, the Drifter helped wrap fresh bandages onto your body and carried you back to the guest bed. 

“You feelin’ alright sister?” The Drifter asks while scratching his beard. 

“Still in a bit of pain.” You admit “It’s going to be tough for a while.” 

“Just keep your chin up sister. You’ll overcome this..” An awkward silence filled the air after he said those words. Suddenly, he cleared his throat and decided to make some small talk.

“I heard you went to the Dreaming City not too long ago.”  
“Yeah for a small scouting mission.” You explained “Nothing too great…how did you know I went?”

“Got ears all over the galaxy kid.” Drifter smirked “You’re also a hot topic with the Guardians who come in for Gambit when you’re not here. Heard you took down a witch.” 

“Yeah she was possessed by the Darkness.” You confirmed “Poor woman, I really felt bad for her.”

“Well, you did her a great favor.” The Drifter admitted “By now, the Darkness would’ve corrupted her and who knows what would’ve happened. Wanna tell Ol’Drifter everything that happened? If you have the strength of course…” You smiled at the Rogue LightBearer before beginning to tell him everything that happened. From the scuffle between the Taken, Hive and you, to your battle against the witch and how you fought against hoarded of Taken with your team and eventually defeated her and saved her life. Of course you had to take a few breaks here and there to save your throat and also for Bright to transmat in and heal a few of your wounds. 

“Damn kid.” The Drifter finally spoke “I knew you were somethin’ out there in Gambit; but this..” he snorted a laugh “You’re insane out there. Much hell to ya for kickin’ their asses and takin’ names.” You blush a tiny bit at his comment.

“T-thank you.” You smile “Have you ever been to The Dreaming City?”

“Loads of times Sister.” The Drifter waves “Nice place the Awoken made, but after awhile it loses its sheen if ya get me. Food’s not bad though.”  
“You’re right on the food.” You try to laugh only to be hit with a small amount of pain, it wasn’t as bad as it was earlier thanks to Bright’s efforts. 

“Take it easy Hotshot.” The Drifter soothed before deciding to change the subject “So how’s the Vanguard treating you these days?”  
“They’re alright.” You confess “I admit I’m not as crazy about them as I was after Cayde passed, but I stayed because the pay is somewhat decent, exploring other planets is really fun, and causing chaos with the other factions really makes me happy.” You shrugged are the last part. 

“Damn. The Vanguard should think twice and put you in charge.” Laughed Drifter “If they did, then I’d consider joining.” 

“Would you now?” You quipped.

“Only cause I know the leader would make it interestin’.”  
“Hmmm… if I was in charge of the Vanguard, I’d sure as hell make Gambit legal. Maybe I would make you head of a department that strictly studies the Darkness…”

“Nah, then it wouldn’t be as fun when it’s illegal.”  
“Alrighty mister Drifter,” You chuckle “what would you do if you were in charge of the Vanguard?”  
  


“Actually do somethin’ and not sit idly by.” He shrugged “Nip everythin’ in their butt before it gets out of hand. Make the Vanguard somethin’ everyone could look up to and somethin’ everyone who crosses ‘em fear somethin’ for once. And hunt Shin Malphur down…” you jokingly roll your eyes at the last part considering you knew Shin Malphur was The Drifter’s enemy for a long time. A minute’s worth of silence completely passed both of you before you made your decision to ask the question that had been an elephant in the room for quite sometime.

“Hey, Drifter…” you began the conversation. “Hmm?” He hummed. “I- I wanted to ask you about what happened wit-“ you were stopped when The Drifter placed his gloved, left index finger on your lips to shush you from the question.

“I know what yer gonna ask hotshot.” He replied “And the only answer I can give is I don’t know. I’m still scratchin’ my head over the whole thing. I’ve never seen a Primeval act out the way it did during that match and I have a feelin’ it may have been sabotage.” Your eyes widened a bit at his theory and you could literally feel your blood run cold.

“Sabotage?!” You yelp.  
“Yeah.” Drifter nodded a tad bit sadly “Only thing I could think of that makes sense. Seems like someone wants ya dead and try to blame yer death on me. It’d be a big scandal if that happened.” 

“Who would do such a thing?”

“Sister, I have a lot of enemies out there. Ain’t surprisin’ one of ‘em is gonna attempt sabotage. Well, it kinda is considerin’ they’d probably try to kill me first; but ya get the drift.” Silence filled the room and made you begin to shiver. Shiver more than the cold air in this Frankenstein of a spaceship, more than the time your apartment’s heating unit broke and you had to file a complaint to your landlord, more than that time you spent a week on Io for a scouting mission (you gave Zavala an earful on that one!). You looked down at the blankets covering your body, feeling this information shake your very core until you felt The Drifter’s gloved hand cover yours, bringing comfort to you.

“It’s fine now sister.” He soothes “Ain’t no one gonna come after ya while you’re on the Derelict. Part of the reason why I kept you on here to begin with, got security systems all over this damn ship so ain’t no one’s gonna break into the ship and try to kill ya. Cause if the security doesn’t get ‘em…. I will.” He pulled his hand cannon _Trust_ out from his belt and aimed at the wall as if they were an intruder he was ready to kill. 

You felt your body become at ease at his reassurance and smiled softly at him. You didn’t know what it was; but he certainly knew how to make you feel more comfortable. As you settled into the reassurance, you let out a small yawn by mistake.

“Sounds like yer gettin’ tired.” The Drifter chuckles “Time for bed I reckon.” He looked outside the window to see the positioning of The Derelict as it orbited Earth “Yeah, if my calculations are correct, I’d say it’s about 11pm where we are.” He leaned in closer to you and began to tuck you into bed. “You rest up Sister.” The Drifter ordered “You have a decent sized road to recovery and it starts with rest.” He began to fluff your pillow and make sure you were settled in perfectly before turning away. 

“Um Drifter?” You call out to the rogue. He looked back at you with a questioning gaze “Can you please stay with me? Until I fall asleep……” the man looked at you with surprise for a moment before giving a small chuckle and returning to his chair. “Now don’t you go tellin’ any other Guardians I did this.” The Drifter told you while wagging his finger “This is a one time thing and I don’t want them thinkin’ I’ve gone soft.”

“Fine by me.” You smile as The Drifter’s Ghost appeared and lowered the lights in the room. Bright transmatted out of thin air and soon snuggles himself into the pillow near your head, closing his bright blue eye and closing his shell up to signify he fell asleep. Moments pass as you and The Drifter sat in the dark, your eyes were closed as you tried to sleep. Moments passed and soon, you found the pull of sleep lull you in. Once The Drifter heard your even breathing and soft snores, he carefully got up from his chair and left your room. He made his way down the hallway and eventually came to a small room.  
  


#

The room was clustered for the most part. It had a table with loads of guns and gun related materials, shelves filled with rare items he collected over his years of traveling this star system. A pull-out cot was next to the wall, dingy and lumpy from years of use and on it was a pillow along with a sleeping bag and a blanket. 

On the walls of this room, was banners with two snakes, coiled together and ready to bite their own tails: The Gambit insignia. The Drifter made his way into the room, began to strip out of his clothing until he was in nothing but his boxers. A set of black boxers that were tight to his skin. His body, like his face was scarred from years of fights and struggles to survive. He sat down on the cot and let out a large sigh, either in relief or uncertainty. He wasn’t sure. 

His Ghost made an appearance out of thin air and began to stare at him with his lone, red, eye. He blinked a few times, slowly. It was as if he was trying to tell The Drifter something. “Don’t give me that look.” The Drifter scoffed “You know why I’m doin’ this whole “assistant” thing.” The Ghost said nothing, it just stared as if to say: _“She’s kind. Why do you want to take advantage of her?”_

“You know why.” The Drifter told it in a hushed tone, knowing sound can carry in this ship “I was goin’ to make an offer to her moment it came up; but I saw this as the right opportunity. Yeah, it’s fucked up I’m doin’ this in her hour of need, but it will help in the long run. I want her in my crew, to be my weapon. And if rumors are true, she’s a tough nut to crack. Whole idea of this “assistant” thing is to make her want to join my crew, when the time ends, she’ll want more and stay. Zavala and those idiot Vanguards won’t have a word to say after I make her part of my crew. She’ll be my weapon from here on out.” The Ghost stared at it’s Lightbearer with no sign of shock or emotion, it blinked again as if to ask: _”But what about that Gambit match? Don’t tell me-“_

“I know what yer thinkin’.” The Drifter replies “And the answer is, hell no. I ain’t that conniving. I’m still gonna ring the neck of whoever sabotaged that Gambit match, bastard almost killed her. I’m just jumpin’ at the opportunity. I’m gonna poke around some tech tomorrow again and see if I can find an answer. Least I can do for her…”

The Ghost continued to stare at The Drifter, not looking as if to say something, but giving up it’s “telepathic” conversation with it’s Lightbearer before transmitting away, feeling the conversation was over and there was no point in trying to argue. The Drifter stretched his muscles out and a distinct crick or crack could be heard before he scooted into his sleeping bag, allowed his Ghost to lower the lights and fall into a deep sleep for the night.


	4. The First Task

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry I took a while to post! Life caught up with me and it’s been one thing after another. But I haven’t forgotten everyone!! Thank you for being understanding and I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 4: The First Task**

The weeks passed by for you both slowly and quickly (it that makes any sense). Eventually, you managed to make a full recovery, thanks to The Drifter’s medical care and your Ghost’s small healing sessions. While Bright was mainly fully recovered, it was heavily recommended he did small amounts of healing on you , Incase something didn’t go right.

By the end of the week you woke up, you were able to move around The Derelict in a wheelchair. The next week, you were capable of moving in crutches. And by the following week, The Drifter was giving you his own form of “Physical Therapy” (mainly tossing a Hive skull around, collecting small motes he would hide around the ship to get you to use your legs, you get the picture).

Eventually, you were pretty much fully recovered. Though, you weren’t fully ready to go back to Vanguard related duties, The Drifter personally felt you were ready enough to get back on the field for his own personal work. One day you found yourself sitting in The Drifter’s own personal little gym on The Derelict, you were lifting a few weights while your Ghost buzzed around you, counting how many arm curls you could do.

So far, you managed to beat your record of 100 with 20lb weights.

“197……198…….” Bright counted “199……200!” He let out the small buzzing noise he would use on you every single morning to wake you up. By the Traveler did you hate that sound “Great job ____________! You’re getting back to your old self!” And from the looks of it, Bright was getting back to his old self as well “ Are you up for some jump rope now?”

“I’m ready for it.” You smile as you place the weight down “Let’s see if I can get passed 150 jumps this time.”

“That jump ropin’ is gonna have to wait.” A voice called out to you both. Both you and Bright suddenly looked into the direction the voice came from and you soon found The Drifter in his usual clothing, minus his large overcoat. Next to him was his Ghost who made its way over to you, looking for a small rub on one of its wings.

Since you thanked the little Ghost, it would start nestling up to you wanting a rub on its wings, Bright didn’t truly mind since he saw the relationship between The Drifter and his Ghost.

“Is everything okay Drifter?” You asked with concern.

“Everything is fine.” The Drifter smiled “But, today I need ya to get out on the field and knock off a few things on this list! Today’s your first day Sister!”

“It is?” You spoke out in surprise “Are you sure I’m ready?”

“I think so.” Drifter winks before pulling out his data pad and flicking through it before pressing a few buttons “I just sent you a small shopping list.” Your small data pad suddenly buzzed, causing you to pull it out and begin to read the items on the checklist he made.

“Get Rare jerky?” You quizzed “Try to get Spider to sell Ol’ Drifter that Mida catalyst? Negotiate a deal with the Fallen over cargo?”

“Oh ho that’s gonna be a real tough one.” Drifter chuckles.

“Get diffuser?”

“That’s for a little side project Ol’Drifter has in store.” You cocked an eyebrow at that “You’ll see eventually.” He winked at you.

“Get anti-itch cre-“ The Drifter suddenly grabbed your data pad, took his finger and crossed out that from the to-do list on the pad.

“Ahem, that shouldn’t have made it on the list.” He excused “That’s supposed to be in my grocery list.” 

“Get light ether, whiskey and meet with Kadi 55-30 at Tower?” You look up in confusion “Is that all?”

“Everything but the kitchen sink.” The Drifter shrugged “Some of it you can wait, others I need done by today sister. If ya noticed, the ones that have a star next to them are the ones I want by today.” You looked over the list again and made a mental note of the items he wanted today.

“I can get these done by tonight.” You smiled “I’ll head out now!”

“Dressed like that?” The Drifter pointed out “Sister I know your top armor got busted by that damn Primeval; but even I wouldn’t go around town gym clothes.” You looked down at your clothing and noticed he was right, you couldn’t go parading around in this!”

“Hang on hotshot.” The Drifter suddenly spoke “I’ll be back.” He left the gym for a moment into a room down the hall.

**_CRASH!_ **

**_BANG!_ **

**_CLUNK!!!_ **

Noises filled the metal hallways along with a few strings of curse words in alien languages. You and Bright exchanged glances as the noises continued to fill the hallway before the distinct sound of _“Aha!”_ echoed though the building. The clunking of The Drifter’s boots hitting the cold metal floors reverberated through the ship before he arrived back in his small gym, a set of neatly folded black fabric along with a set of boots on top along with a helmet rested in his hands. But what caught your attention the most was the intricate, green snake pattern on it.

“This is your new gear.” He explained “Since your old armor is on ice, this will serve as not only something to protect you on the field out there, but showin everyone who you work for.” He winked before handing the clothing to you “I’ll be waiting outside.” He walked out of the room as you began to strip down to your underwear, revealing a matching set of red, lacy undergarments that showed your breast off somewhat decently. As you began flap out the clothing, unbeknownst to you, The Drifter took a small peak behind the wall he was near and saw you in your undergarments. He normally looked away when you were naked or half naked, but this time, he wanted to be a little naughty.

_“Not bad.”_ He thought to himself as he watched you placed the set of pants on before he turned away. You dressed yourself in the armor The Drifter gifted you with and soon found yourself in a set of black Hunter armor with green snakes decorating the pants, sleeves, boots and cloak. You walked over to a nearby mirror to look at yourself. Even you had to admit, the armor looked really nice on you.

“Looks good.” The Drifter’s voice suddenly called out as he walked into the room “Normally that’s armor I give out to my Reapers in Gambit Prime; however this one is a bit different. The defense and mobility is higher than normal so you won’t have many problems on the field. It also has a built in tracker and silent emergency signal so that way if yer in a bit of a pickle, Ol’Drifter can get to ya and help ya out.” You nodded in understanding and studied the new set of armor on your body with curiosity and happiness.

“Almost forgot one thing.” The Drifter suddenly remembered. He pulled out a necklace with a pendant of two green snakes, coiled together and trying to bite their own tails: a copy of his necklace. Only difference was this was made from metal.

“This is to show who you work for.” He explained with a wink “Tells people not to fuck with ya. Wear it with pride.” He circled you before making his way behind you and giving the motion to lift your ______ hair. You lifted it up for one brief moment before feeling the cold pendant touch your armor and the chain wrapping itself around your neck as The Drifter clipped the two clasps together.

“There.” He smirked “You’re in business.” He clapped his hands together in excitement and examined you from head to toe. You looked marvelous in his special armor “Now go tackle that list sister!” You saluted your new boss and looked to Bright who transported you to Thieves Landing.

~.~

You walked around Thieves Landing, your new Hunter cape swaying in the breeze and your boots clanking against the ground. A small skip in your step as you walked around and you hummed a small tune. You were happy. The happiest you can ever be. The man you’ve been crushing on for months on end was giving you a chance to talk with him, work with him, and get to know him made you happy.

You hoped this would give you more of a chance to impress him and maybe even hang out more with him. It was one thing that he was trying to help you get back on your feet; but you sincerely wanted to be able to hang out with him more on better terms. You stopped in your tracks for a brief moment and slapped your cheeks as if to snap yourself out of your happy daze. You were on a business front now. It was time to get serious.

You quickly placed a black helmet onto your head and took a deep breath. A building with a large entryway stood by and made you take another deep breath. At the ending of that entry way was a notorious being: The Spider. An Elinski who was known on the Black Market and selling goods that were hard to find or could give you information…. _if_ your Glimmer was good.

You only met The Spider on one occasion. Mainly for work purposes such as finding an item the Vanguard needed or two, but you hardly dealt with him. You heard he was The Drifter’s business partner with certain deals or schemes he had planned out. Today, you were here on business in The Drifter’s name. Both eagerness and nervousness danced a tango in your stomach as adrenaline pumped through your veins. You needed this to go right. This _had_ to go right. You had to make sure you got that catalyst.

The hallway was dingy. Filled with trash, old, abandoned cargo and who knows what else. It smelled of light rain, ether, and rotten garbage. But also death. A scent you were familiar with. You walked slowly down the dimly lit hallway, scanning the area with your eyes before looking to Bright who was floating next to you.

“Bright,” you whispered “hide in my backpack. We only dealt with Spider once but if you recall, he’s not fond of Ghosts. He had a few strung up around his place if I recall.” The Ghost blinked as if to agree and then disappeared.

You eventually made it to the end of the hallway and soon found a large Elinski, sitting on a giant throne lazily as a few other Fallen stood guard around the room: The Spider. A known dealer around the galaxy and The Drifter’s frequent business partner.

“Well what do we have here?” The Spider clicked “A Guardian? Rare to see your kind around my parts.”

This was it, time to do your job.

“I was sent by our mutual friend.” You reply cooly, trying to sound professional and not even close to nervous. The Spider clicked a little at your words.

“ ** _You’re_** the one The Drifter sent?” He asked “He said he was sending his new “assistant”. Looks like your it eh?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But we know why I’m here.”

“Ah yes.” The Spider purred, leaning in “The Mida catalyst. The Drifter has been wanting this for quite sometime. And he sent you to retrieve it.”

“Do you have it?” You asked, ignoring his comment, trying to move the conversation forward.

“I might, I might not, and I might know how to get one, if your boss is willing to pay the price.”

“What’re you asking for?” You cross-examined.not in the mood for head games.

“500,000 glimmer.”

You almost choked on your own saliva hearing that, thank The Traveler this mask was covering your face. That amount of glimmer could literally pay the rent on your apartment for close to ten years! A few seconds of silence filled the room before you made your argument.

“That’s not your best price.” You try to argue.

“That gun is hard to get your hands on. “ The Spider pointed out “I’ll need to have the glimmer for it. And my sources aren’t cheap with exotic weapons.”

“The Drifter has been a good business partner of yours for a long time and always made sure you got your products on time and more. He deserves some form of compensation. If we can’t come to an agreement, my boss can take his business elsewhere.”

The room grew silent enough you could hear a pin drop. The Elinski began clicking and chattering in their own language in a low mutter. You couldn’t understand a word they said, but you knew they were talking about you. The Spider suddenly broke out into a burst of laughter, shaking the room. Everyone stared as he clutched his stomach with two of his arms before finally calming down.

“You have guts.” He chortled “I haven’t seen that in a long time. Alright, I can lower the price on your Mida catalyst, on one condition: show me your face.” Your heart stopped for a moment hearing his request. Why would The Spider want to see your face? To kill you? Make you do some horrible things? Or something else…. You were about to refuse until you remembered how much this deal meant to The Drifter. It was enough that Spider pointed it out. And you admit you wanted to make a good first impression on your first day on the job.

_“Looks like I don’t have a choice.”_ You thought to yourself before taking a deep breath, removing the hood from your cloak, and the removing the mask. You revealed behind that mask your ___________ hair, ______ eyes and _______skin. Your eyes made contact with the Elinski before you as the other Fallen clicked and chattered in their native tongue.

“What an interesting sight.” The Spider spoke as he got up from his throne and began to circle you, studying you from head to toe before making his way over to you and lifting your chin up with one of his many hands. He was a lot taller than most of his kind, you have to admit.

He stared directly into your eyes to see any signs of malice or deceitfulness. But his face changed when he looked closer.

“No way.” He spoke “It can’t be..” he laughed for a moment “It is isn’t it? You’re The Chosen One! You’re the one who woke up The Traveler!” The Elinski began to chatter amongst themselves at the sight of you. This wasn’t good.

“What’s The Chosen One doing working with The Drifter?” Spider asked.

“My association with him is none of your concern.” You replied curtly.

“The Drifter normally doesn’t associate with much people. Let alone take in personal assistants. But the fact that you’re The Chosen One is telling me a lot.”

“What’s that got to do with it?” You reply, wanting to get straight to the point.

“The Drifter uses the people around him to get what he wants.” Spider explained “and Chosen Ones are no exception. If I were you, I’d watch your back. The Drifter doesn’t care about anyone but himself, he’ll leave you for dead if he could. Then again, he may see something special about you.”

“Special how?” You try to ask “I get enough crap from people who want to use me, this isn’t anything new.”

“Well, I think he may want to keep you around.” shrugs The Spider “You’re the Chosen One after all. And from what I’ve heard, you’re a frequent in Gambit.” Your eyes bulged for a second “He may be planning something about you and just use you as a pawn like all the others he’s used over the years. Don’t take his kindness as kindness, he’s possibly using you.But we shall see Little Light.”

The Spider made his way back to his thrown and then sat down, lazily lounging in the throne, happy that he got what he wanted just now.

“I will contact The Drifter later today.” He explained “1,000 glimmer for the Mida catalyst. I’ll transmat it immediately to him after he pays.” You stood in shock for a moment and almost dropped your helmet. You grabbed it in time before getting your bearings and looked at The Spider.

“Wow, okay!” You spoke up “Do you mind if I ask what made you want to drop the price so drastically?” The Spider moved his facial pincers in a fashion that made you think of a smirk, wasn’t the prettiest in your opinion.

“Your lovely face was what paid for most of it Little Light.” He simply replied.


	5. Takeout, Whiskey and Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a successful first day on the job, The Drifter is ready to celebrate your success. But as you both share your meal, the conversation begins to grow deeper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Time for more Drifter and Guardian! I also wanted to give a minor heads up that this chapter does get a bit deep and there is signs of depression in this story. You can skip if you want to but if you’re feeling like this, please call your local suicide hotline or reach out to someone you know you can talk to.

It was already 4pm by the time you managed to finish all of today’s tasks and you were a tad bit exhausted. After the deal was made with Spider, you ran to The Tower to knock off a few more things on the list. So far today was going well, you managed to get the Mida catalyst from Spider, and bought the jerky he asked you to buy off his list (you thought originally it was some rare meat jerky that you would eat, but learned it was a hacking device of some sort named The Rare Jerky).

Now here you were, walking the bazaar in The Tower, four bags in your hands. One was filled with a large bottle of whiskey, another filled with a container filled with light ether, one had an unusual package and the last was something for yourself you had to pick up anyhow. As you walked around The Tower, looking over your list one more time to make sure that you got everything on The Drifter’s list for the day.

As you took another step, Bright appeared before you.

“_________,” he spoke “The Drifter is calling. He wants to speak with you.”

“Answer please.” You smiled before Bright started the call.

_“Sister what the hell did you do to get Spider to agree?!”_ The Drifter freaked _“I’ve been wanting that Mida catalyst for weeks and he wouldn’t change his price! Then I get a call saying you negotiated a deal for 1,000 Glimmer?! Did you put a gun to his head or something?”_

“No,” you replied nonchalantly “he just wanted to see my face is all.”

_“Your face?”_

“Yeah, he wanted to know what the person who got the position of The Drifter’s Assistant looked like.”

_“Well, looks like your gorgeous face is stayin.”_ The Drifter confessed, causing your whole face to turn tomato red _“Could use it against prosperous business partners. How’s the rest of the list going?”_

“I finished it five minutes ago.” You confirmed “I wanted to double check before I made my way to The Derelict.”

_“Well Sister, I congratulate you on a job well done today! Listen, I ordered a bit of Take Out at this dingy little restaurant called Last City Pho. Once you get everything on your ship, think you can pick it up for Ol’Drifter?”_

“You’re lucky I’m still in the area so I’ll go pick it up.” You smiled.

 _“Great! See ya back on The Derelict.”_ With that said he hung up.

~.~

Thirty minutes after you hung up, you soon found yourself on the Derelict. You walked the halls of the rust bucket ship and turned every few ways thanks to being oh-so familiar with the ship’s map. The Drifter sat at a small desk in a cramped room on the ship, tinkering with gun parts and creating Frankenstein-esque weapons from them. Who knows, maybe he planned to give them out when Gambit returned.

“Welcome back.” The Drifter smirked “Congratulations on a job well done on your first day Sister!” You blushed a little bit hearing him praise you. Thank The Traveler your mask was on.

“T-thank you.” You swallowed “I brought your dinner.” You handed The Drifter a large bag from the Pho restaurant. He took it from your hands and looked into the bag, a smirk appeared on his lips as he stared at the contents of the bag.

“Excellent.” He smirked. The Drifter then got up from his chair, handed you the bag and began to leave the room “Head over to the platform in the Ready Room, I’m heading to the kitchen for a few moments.” You nodded at him before going your separate ways from him.

~.~

You climbed the small staircase that lead to the large platform, you looked out to the view it presented you and felt your breath taken away. It was magnificent in a certain sense. Four transmats on different sides, the interior of a kit-bash ship, weird plant-life and frigid cold air. But one thing that stood out the most was a gigantic portal. A portal that was glowing a bright blue and led to the small planet in tow of The Drifter’s ship. What was in there, not even you knew.

“Interested in The Reckoning eh?” A voice called out to you. You looked behind yourself to find The Drifter, holding two whiskey glasses, chopsticks, forks and two Chinese soup spoons “I got it as a gift from The Nine. Tried cutting the wires once but that didn’t go as planned.”

“W-what’s in it?” You question.

“Mainly snow.” The Drifter shrugged “But deeper into it, is a city, filled with Taken.”

“So that’s where you get the Taken for Gambit from.”

“Mainly.” The Drifter confirmed “But besides acting as a Taken cage, it’s also my connection to The Nine. That damn loon likes to keep tabs on me.” He muttered the last part. He made his way over to the ledge of the platform, bent down into a seated position, where his legs dangled off the side, he took the bottle of whiskey you bought earlier today, the canister of ether, and poured them into the whiskey glasses. Only thing was, you noticed was that he only poured a small amount of ether into the glasses.

“Bit of a drink I came up with when I ran a bar.” He confessed to you “Whirlwind it’s called. Pretty good with this Pho.” He took the takeout out of its bag and revealed two medium sized bowls of pho. He placed one bowl to his left and the other to his right. He looked over to you and patted the spot next to his left, hinting to you to come sit with him. Without a hint of hesitation, you made your way to the spot he invited you too and took your seat.

He passed the bowl of pho to you as well as the utensils. You opened the lid from the bowl and the scent of beef broth along with cooked meatball, beef, cooked vegetables, and rice noodles danced around your nostrils.

“Stuffs good.” The Drifter admitted “I don’t normally do take out as much as I used to; but tonight’s a special night.” He handed you one of the glasses of Whirlwind he created earlier and raised the one he was holding.

“To your first day on the job.” He toasted.

“Cheers!” You both celebrated in unison before clinking your glasses together and taking a small sip of the Whirlwind, feeling a burning sensation go down your throat. A moment of silence passed between you two before you decided to take a taste of the pho The Drifter ordered for you. You took a quick bite of the meat and felt it instantly melt in your mouth. It had spices from what had to be Earth, different planets in the system, and the broth added an extra kick.

“Good ain’t it?” The Drifter asked before slurping a great amount of noodles into his mouth, chewing and swallowing it “probably one of the best restaurants in the City, and one of the things that made me wanna help fight off those stupid pyramids.”

“Ugh I hate those things.“ You grown “Zavala has me busy all the time with making sure they don’t spread. They’re creepy as fuck.“

“You can say that again sister.“ The Drifter sighed “I can’t even tell you how much they freak me out. Feels like I’m back in the damn Dark Ages again.“ You look at him with curiosity before deciding to be a little daring and ask him a question on your mind.

“Where were you when Rasputen and The Almighty fought?“ you asked with curiosity.

“In The Annex.“ The Drifter confesses “I thought it was getting dark, but when I saw a few guardians run by I knew somethin’ was up. An earthquake hit for a moment and then a regular ran to me and told me to head to The Courtyard. That’s when I saw it. What about you? Where were you?“

“The Courtyard.“ You admit “My team and I were there to get mail from our inboxes and then we saw the sky darken. We thought it was going to rain again, but then we saw Rasputen fight The Almighty. Just seeing those projectiles hit The Tower scared the ever-loving shit out of me. I thought Samson might’ve broken a bone because I gripped on his arm too tightly.“ The Drifter nodded. A pregnant silence filled the room before he looked over to you in curiosity as you ate.

“So, your fire-team…..” The Drifter began as he took a sip of his liquor.

“What about them?” You ask.

“I’m just curious, how long have you been with them? I’m always seeing you around them so, you can say Ol’Drifter wants to know.” You gave him a small, questioning gaze before deciding to answer.

“About over a year.” You confess “I met them during a job and had to team up with them. Normally I was never one for teams. I preferred being solo, especially after Cayde’s death because I didn’t want to go through what happened again. I met them and when they saw what I could do, they asked me to join their clan. I was hesitant at first; but Samson is convincing so I joined. They didn’t learn I was “The Chosen One” until a few weeks later and they personally couldn’t have cared less which is why I stayed. My fire-team is pretty much the whole clan. Just the four of us plus our Ghosts. You can thank them for introducing me to Gambit as well.”

The Drifter nodded and took in a few noodles from his Pho.

“What about that Titan guy?” The Drifter asked “The one who’s always hugging ya?”

“Samson?” You blinked “He’s just a friend. We prefer to keep it that way too.”

“You sure?” You gave The Drifter a look and smiled.

“He’s just a good friend. He’s a great guy when you get to know him, great captain and clan leader.”

“Wait, I thought you were the clan leader.” You looked over to the Drifter with pure surprise on your face.

“You thought I was the clan leader?” You laugh a bit.

“I mean yeah.” The Drifter comments “Considering everything, I figured you were their captain.”

“Ah no, not really into that. Too much stress if you ask me.” You downed a shot of whiskey before looking at The Drifter “Besides, I have enough crap on my plate these days. Vanguard duties, being your assistant, raids, any free time I can get, and those creepy pyramids are enough. Leading a clan would probably give me a stroke.”

“I can imagine.“ The Drifter chortled “Back during The Dark Ages, my crew and I had a our bouts of stress. I even remember us once arguing over who got the last chocolate bar.“ he smiled faintly at the memory of his fallen comrades, making him remember some of the good times he had with his crew.

“You always talk about The Dark Ages I noticed.“ You realized “I heard a lot of stories involving it, and I know it wasn’t a great time.“

“Yeah, well it’s not fun when yer witnessing people you grew to care for getting killed left and right.“ He confesses as he takes a sip of his Whirlwind. Maybe it was the drink, but he felt more of a need to talk about what he witnessed back then “I still see them ya know. My crew mates, the people who died in that small village, every Guardian I ever met that never made it back. Whenever I close my eyes I still feel like I’m back there.“

You looked at The Drifter with concern being painted in your eyes, wondering if you should do something, then the first option came to your mind, one that always helped you on a bad day.

“Do you want to hug?“ You offered The Drifter “Sometimes hugging will make you feel better.“ you knew this wasn’t an option he would take normally, but it was better than nothing.

“I ain’t into hugs.“ The Drifter brushes you off “Don’t know if you’ll pull a gun on me.“ You somewhat flinch at that accusation.

“I’ve been through hell and back the past thousand years.“ The Drifter explained “I can’t even explain to you half the horrors I’ve witnessed. I’ve witnessed humanity at its knees for The Traveler’s Sake. And for what? To fight for the sake of some giant orb that appeared out of nowhere one day and offered us ‘protection and eternal life’?“ He moved his fingers into air quotes when speaking that “I lost good friends during the Dark Ages. I witnessed children die and the Iron Lords and The Vanguard do nothin’ but sit on their asses all day and look good. Sometimes I feel I shoulda’ died with my crew.“ you sat there in complete surprise at his sudden choice of words, unable to even think of something to say.

“Drifter…“ You managed to breathe out in concern.   
“And I know what you Guardians think of me.” The Drifter added on “I know y’all think I’m crazy. I seen how you and everyone look at me. Everyone thinks because I lived through the Dark Ages, I’m insane for thinking it’s comin’ back. That I’m some old fool who’s lost it. I know where it’s at.” A moment of silence filled the air before you looked over to him, noticing the saddened expression on his face. You needed to be honest with him, right then and there.

“I don’t think you’re crazy.” You silently admitted.

“Nah.” He scoffed “You’re just being nice is all.”

“I’m serious. I don’t think you’re crazy. I’ve seen a lot of things out there, things that I don’t want to talk about; I know you’re right. Something’s brewing….. what, we don’t know and those fucking pyramids are proof of it. I personally think you’re right on the Glimmer. And I’m glad you’re around to try and help us. I’m glad you survived.”

The Drifter cocked an eyebrow in surprise at your words as you finished the broth from dinner and looked out to the vortex that led into The Reckoning, your legs dangling off the side of the platform he used during his Gambit matches oh so many times. What you said to him, no one said before. Everyone always wanted him dead or pretended to be his friend until they got what they wanted. Hearing someone, you especially, admit you were glad he survived, made him feel…..happy? He wasn’t sure. Whatever he was feeling right now, it was weird mix of emotions that he wasn’t sure he liked or not.He stared at you as you finished the remainder of your broth, and placed the bowl down before pulling you a hug as you both sat.

“You said huggin’ would make ya feel better earlier didn’t ya?” He asked “Consider it one of the rare times Ol’Drifter needed one. Just don’t go tellin’ nobody. I got a reputation to keep.” You we’re surprised at first; but soon you found yourself melting into the hug. To you, it felt _safe_. Like as if The galaxy’s problems and those pyramids would go away permanently thanks to his hugs. The Drifter, who was one who didn’t go for hugs, felt as if his problems could completely melt away from this.

“Yeah.” You hummed, sinking deeper into his hug “I won’t.”

You both sat there, hugging each other as the vortex glowed, creating beautiful light blue auras that danced off the ship’s walls.


	6. The Festival of The Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After discovering the cause of your accident, The Drifter takes you to The Festival of The Lost to help get your mind off of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy late Halloween everyone! I’m sorry I didn’t post this on Halloween, I unfortunately didn’t have the time to post this by then and got sidetracked with work the past few days. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

Three days had passed since your dinner with The Drifter and the best way to describe the atmosphere with you both was probably both better, and a tiny bit awkward. Better because The Drifter got something that’s been on his mind for what had to be over a thousand years, and probably eating away at his already fragile psyche, but awkward because you were literally the last person on the face of the entire galaxy that you expected to be the one to comfort him. And there were times you weren’t what you called the best at that.

But now for today, you were on Nesus, handling a few bounties you had been slacking on due to your injuries. As you managed to kill the last Vex Goblin in order to complete this little bounty, you let out a puff of air, exhausted after fighting an entire army of Vex. Maybe Drifter had a valid point when he said he thinks they rebuild themselves sometimes, because their numbers were ridiculous!

Your train of thoughts stopped the moment you heard the distinct sound of _Ding ding ding!_ hit the air. That was Bright’s cue to you that the bounty was complete. The small Ghost soon appeared out of thin air and right next to your side, looking as if he was happy.

“That’s the last one for today __________!“ Bright replied in a cheerful tune.

“Thank The Traveler.“ You sighed as you looked over to Bright “I’m exhausted. Let’s head back to The Last City, grab some Pizza, head back to our apartment and watch a horror movie. “ you and Bright began to walk away from the scene as you put away your guns.

“Guardian, “ Bright suddenly spoke “ Isn’t tonight the biggest night for The Festival of The Lost? “ you stopped in your tracks remembering that piece of information.

“Crap I forgot. “ you groaned “I remember you wanted to go… Tell you what Bright, let’s have dinner back at the apartment, rest up a bit, then I’ll change out of my armor and we can head to The Festival. Sounds good? “

“It sounds wonderful! “ Bright levitated up in happiness.

You gave Bright a nod to begin transmat until Bright began to buzz.

“It’s The Drifter. “ he explained “It seems like an urgent call. “

“Answer please. “ you nodded and Bright answered.

 _“Hey hotshot. “_ The Drifter said _“Where are ya? “_

“I’m on Nessus. “ you smiled to his voice “I was going to head back to my ship, go grab dinner, and visit the Festival afterwards. “

 _“Well, you alright with taking a minor detour to The Annex? “_ you and Bright automatically exchanged glances.

“Drifter, “ Bright interjected “Is everything alright? “

 _“For the most part. “_ He sighed “ _But I think it’s best you come down here. Both of ya. I found The Mote Bank from the day of your accident._ “ Your eyes widened in complete shock.

“Y-you found it?! “ You squeaked.

“ _Yeah, it got lost with the other ones I was going to put up for sale. I’m going to crack that puppy open and see what’s going on inside. I think lookin’ at the mainframe might give us some clues as to what happened that day. I won’t start till you get here._ “

“We’ll be there. “ you nodded to The Drifter.

“ _Great, see you then._ “ with that said, The Drifter hung up and you both transmatted to your ship.

~.~

The Annex was decorated with lanterns and string lights, fake trees, candles, sunflowers and jack o’lanterns. All for the Festival of The Lost which mainly occurred every October. You and Bright made your way down the hallway until coming across a decorated archway with lights flickering from it like Frankenstein’s laboratory. You peered your head through the doorway to find The Drifter chatting with a few Guardians, sharing a few laughs.

You watched as suddenly a female Warlock began to put her hands on The Drifter’s chest in a somewhat sexual manner. You weren’t sure, but you felt your heart suddenly twist in an unsettling manner as this female Warlock did this to him, You wanted to rip that bitch’s hands off of him and throw her out of the room.

“Hey Drifter, “ she purred “Do you want to go to The Festival with me tonight? “

The Drifter looked away from the Warlock with disinterest before he saw you, now in the doorway of his little dingy hallway with uncertainty. Immediately, he threw the Warlock’s hands off his chest and began to push her and her friends out of the room.

“Sorry Sister, “ he said as he pushed them out the room “but Ol’Drifter has plans tonight. Because of those, I’m closing shop early. See ya around! “ with that said, he slammed the grate door shut, leaving you and him alone in the room.

“How you livin’ sister? “ he asked with his infamous smirk “Are you ready to figure out what’s up with that mote bank? “

“I’m ready. “ you told him as you made your way over to him “Let’s find out what happened. “ At that moment, The Drifter began to remove the large cannon strapped to his back along with the belt over his coat, his gloves and eventually his infamous jacket. You soon witnessed as he removed his gi, revealing underneath all those layers of clothing a white undershirt and a muscular frame.

Your whole face, which was now free from its helmet, turned beat red at the sight of his muscular body, this didn’t go unnoticed by The Drifter.

“Like what ya see?“ He asked as he flexed arm muscle for a moment, your whole face turned an even darker shade of red.

“L-let’s just get started. _“_ you blushed as you looked away from him.

He let out a small chuckle before grabbing a tool box and making his way over to the Mote Bank. He took out a screw driver and began to unscrew the hatch and collected the screws. He then took out a crowbar and pried open the hatch, revealing an entire network of wires, fans and microchips.

“Dark in here. “ The Drifter grumbled to himself he made a waving motion which caused his Ghost to appear before him and then turned on its flashlight function. You waved your hand which caused Bright to appear and join The Drifter’s Ghost in giving him some light.

“Man this shit’s a pigsty. “ he grumbled to himself as he pulled a few wires out of the way Bright and The Drifter’s Ghost got closer as did you to get a better look “Hnngh. Transmat chip, Power wire, ugh that’s gonna need to be replaced- hey, what the hell is this?“ he suddenly pulled out a small microchip. Unlike The Drifter’s homemade electronics, this microchip looked like it was made by a factory line.

“Looks like somethin’ got in my work that wasn’t supposed to. “ he whistled he studied it for a moment before realizing something “It can’t be… holy shit I thought these things were a myth!“ he held it up to your face and showed you the chip “Sister, this little bastard I would say is what caused your accident. “ you paled at the sight of that tiny microchip. Something so little can cause so much trouble?  
  


“ ** _That’s_** what caused my accident?!” You squeaked in shock.

“Yeah.” The Drifter nodded as he showed the tiny device off to you in his greasy, bare hand “Some idiot broke in, and put this chip into the Mote Bank’s mainframe before the game that day. I’ve heard of these things before but I thought they were just rumors.”

“What the hell is it?” You questioned, now beginning to feel your skin crawl from staring at this little chip.

“They called it a Take Over I believe.” He explained “I don’t really remember.”

“A Take Over?! What the hell is it? Who would even make such a thing?!” You flipped out. The Drifter stared at you directly in the eyes before sighing and making his decision to tell you the story.

“Years ago,” The Drifter began “The Iron Lords wanted to try and take control of the Taken in hopes of ending The Dark Ages and they had scientists make some device that controls ‘em. It was meant to be “for the greater good” as those bastards claimed. As you can imagine, it went horribly wrong. Taken ended up killin’ most of those scientists. After that, The Vanguard got involved and destroyed all the schematics, processed chips and everything. If rumors are true, with the control of either a remote or Ghost, this chip sends out frequencies that Taken go off of. Basically, it allows them to control the Taken to their likin’.”

You sat there in a complete stupor that such a thing could even exist. What the fuck were the Iron Lords thinking?! You knew they did some messed up things thanks to listening to The Drifter’s stories of them; but this was beyond sickening. You began to even make a mental note to never go to Iron Banner when it arrived again, as well as warn your clan mates about it.

“B-but what about when you couldn’t turn the game off?” You ask, shivering a bit.

“I checked after I was done bandaging your wounds night 1.” The Drifter reveals “Someone cut the wire that makes that button work. Fortunately they had no sweet clue Drifter installed an emergency button. And to top it off, that was new wiring too! Damn bastard costed me money…..” you felt your whole body began to shake at these revelations.

“Why would they do this?” You finally whispered out.

“I’m considered a conspiracy theory type of guy,” The Drifter admitted scratching his beard with his clean hand “so my theory is that someone tried to kill ya in Gambit that day and was planning to pin the blame of your death on me or turn ya away from me.”

You began to felt sick to your stomach, like any second you could throw up. Someone was out to get you and it was possibly one of The Drifter’s enemies.

“Who would do such a thing?” You whispered under your breath.

“I have many enemies sister.” The Drifter confesses as he got up, grabbed a towel and wiped his hands in it, creating black stains on the towel “All of them wanted my head on a silver platter for over 1,000 years. Now that they want you, well, heh- you sure as hell know I’m not gonna let that happen.” He dropped the towel on the table and made his way over to you, placing his hand gently on your cheek as if to comfort you.

“I’m promisin’ ya sister. I’m going to protect you.” He reassured with a serious tone in his voice. He got up for a moment and began to put away some tools, he could sense your discomfort with all this information and then, he decided to do something he never did before “Hey, how about I shower, get changed and we go check out that Festival of The Lost? Haven’t been to it in years.”

You looked to him in surprise at his offer, figuring he would be the last person to ever want to go to The Festival. But with a smile on your lips, you gave him a quick: “Mmhmm. “

~.~

An hour past and both you and The Drifter soon found yourselves at The Festival of The Lost. The Drifter was kind enough to allow you to shower on The Derelict and with Bright’s help, you changed into a black sundress with an orange sash. Pretty fitting for this time of year! Once you both showered, eaten and relaxed, both you and The Drifter were transmatted to The Tower’s courtyard where the festival was taking place.

You both transmatted into the Courtyard where a large tree that was decorated in colorful lanterns, cobwebs and hauntingly amazing music played throughout the Tower. You were in complete awe at the sight of all of this. The Courtyard of The Tower had a beautiful yet haunting decorated courtyard. A large, fake tree decorated in multiple lights, cobwebs, candles and other haunting items took the center of the courtyard while other areas such as Eververse, Banshee’s workshop and the postal service were decorated in fantastic yet simple decorations.

“Oh this music is amazing!” Bright cheerily spoke out loud “I have to get a few tracks of it!” Bright rushed off to a nearby speaker Without a care in the world to get himself a copy of the beautifully crafted music playing in the courtyard. The Drifter stared at you with curiosity over your Ghost’s enthusiasm for the music.

“He really loves music.” You explained “He always plays it back at our apartment or when we have down time together.” The Drifter nodded in response before glancing around the courtyard in curiosity.

“Anything you want to do hotshot?” He questioned.

“I heard the haunted forest is something to take interest in.” You smiled at him “But I heard Eva Levante is handing out some candy and lanterns.”

“Eva Levante eh? Haven’t seen her in ages. Still trying to act like a mother hen?” You gave him a smirk.

“Always.”

“Well then I rather go to the forest first.”

~.~

The haunted forest was both pretty frightening and challenging. An entire simulation where it was Festival of the Lost themed, and so dark both your Ghosts had to light a path for you, and what didn’t help was that giant monster that no matter what you threw at him, he just wouldn’t die.

You and The Drifter left the simulation with a large amount of loot such as candy, armor, weapons and masks. Once leaving the forest, you and The Drifter began to make your way around The Tower, looking at stalls that were giving away stuff just for this one night. A candied apple stand caught your attention and with a quick motion, you made your way over to the stand, pulled out some glimmer and bought two candied apples for you and The Drifter.

You handed him a candied apple that was green with purple sugar, designed to look like a skull on a striped skewer, while yours was similar, except it was red with green candy. The Drifter gave you a nod of thanks and took a bite into the candied apple, tasting the sweetness of the sugar, but sourness of the apple.

“Mmmhm!” The Drifter hummed with wide eyes “Pretty good hotshot. Take a taste!” he leaned the candied apple closer to your lips, your cheeks now tinted pink from his sudden bold move. You took a small bite out of his apple and smiled at the flavor; this was really good!

“Do you want to go try some games or get a drink?” you asked him.

“Could use a drink.” The Drifter confessed “This sweet crap is makin’ Ol’Drifter thirsty.” He scratched his throat a little bit after revealing that.

“Hot cider! Get your Hot Cider here for fifty glimmer!” the Drifter suddenly pulled out a decent sized block of glimmer and winked at you.

“This one’s on me.” he made his way over to the owner of the stand and made the motion for two medium sized glasses of cider “C’mon, let’s go find a place to sit.”

As you walked by, Guardians would stare at you and The Drifter in curiosity and surprise. Normally the rogue Lightbearer couldn’t stand these types of events, one Guardian who caught your eye was the female Warlock from before, she was with a Hunter and Titan who you think maybe her fireteam members. She stared at the two of you walking by and gave you what you knew had to be the nastiest dealth-glare you ever received. One that would bring a Taken to their knees.

The Drifter suddenly pulled his arm around your shoulder which caught your attention.

“Hey sister,” he suddenly spoke “take a look at the tree.” You looked up and spotted what looked like blue colored motes on the tree behind Eva Levante

“Motes?” You wondered before noticing something “Wait, I don’t think they are motes!”

“They look like them! And from what I can see, I think you’re supposed to try and grab them.”

“Do you want to get a closer look?” You ask him.

“I would get them myself,” the Drifter confesses “but Ol’Drifter isn’t one who can make jumps like that anymore. Might be better for you to try.” You shrugged and began to study the area before finding above you, three rolled carpets made to look like a set of stairs.

“Looks like I found my stepping stone.” You smirked before jumping onto the nearby ramp and climbing your way over to the small “ramp” The Drifter than watched you in amazement as you jump off the ramp and onto the tree, grabbing the blue mote and continuing to climb your way up the tree, grabbing the motes before making it to the top and finding a purple colored one next to a black cat.

The Drifter clapped at your achievement.

“Look at you hotshot!” The Drifter smiled “Alright come down now!” you made your way over to the ledge of the tree and suddenly felt your foot slip. You lost your footing and soon began to fall off the tree.

“Watch out hotshot!” the Drifter hollered before you soon found yourself in The Drifter’s arms, being held by him in a bridal-style fashion.

“You alright?” he asked with a bit of concern, your whole face was soon turning beat red from this.

“Uh.....yeah.” you swallowed “Y-you can put me down now.”

“Oh, uh yeah.” he then gently let you down onto the ground.

“Oh my!” A voice with a very thick accent suddenly spoke out “You two make a lovely couple!” You and The Drifter looked to find Eva Levante, staring at you both with a motherly smile. Your face turned bright red at her compliment and The Drifter, well his cheeks did turn a tad bit pink you noticed.

“We-we’re not a couple!” You sputtered out to her.

“Oh, my mistake dear.” She apologetically replied “The two other you seem to get along so well, I just assumed-“

“Is there anything you want?” The Drifter finally spat out.

“Well, it is the Festival of The Lost,” Eva began “and I wanted to offer you both some lanterns.”

“Lanterns?” You ask.

“For the Lantern Ceremony. You take a lantern and write the name or names of the people you’ve lost over the years. The Lanterns are meant to symbolize that even though they’re gone, they’re still here with us in spirit. Would you like one?”

You looked over to Eva with hesitation, unsure if this was something you should be doing. You were pretty much surprised when The Drifter took a lantern, pulled out a pen and wrote something down on the lantern.

“You lookin’ to get one hotshot?” He questioned, offering the pen to you. You blinked for a moment before taking a lantern Eva offered you, took the pen The Drifter offered you and began to write the only name that came to your mind when writing this: Cayde-6.

“The Lantern Ceremony will be beginning shortly.” Eva revealed to you “When the tree goes dark, light your lanterns and let them float away into the night.” You nodded before walking away with The Drifter.

“Lanterns huh?” He pondered “This is pretty new.”

“I don’t even think we had this last year.” You confess “then again, I think they switch it up every year.” The Drifter shrugs at your reply before you both witness the tree suddenly go dark.

One by one, the lanterns in the courtyard that were handed out throughout the night began to illuminate and started to drift from the hands of the people who lit them.

“Looks like that’s our cue.” The Drifter spoke before taking a small object and clicking it a few times.

“What’s that?” You ask.

“It’s a lighter.” He explained “They don’t make these anymore. Stopped around after the Collapse. These puppies are really hard to find too, I keep one on for safety, hardly get to use it to be honest. Want me to light yours?” You nod as you watch him take your lantern and flick the lighter a few times before a tiny flame came from it and lit the candle inside the lantern. It illuminated a beautiful orange glow before beginning its descent into the sky with everyone else’s lanterns, including The Drifter.

A small tear rolled down your eye as you continued to watch the night sky gleam beautifully with these lanterns. Memories of your time with Cayde filled you up, knowing your lantern was for him.

As you continued to stare into the night sky, you suddenly felt a reassuring hand on your shoulder. You looked to find The Drifter, placing it there and looking up into the sky as well, a small smile on his face as he watched this scene with you.

“Don’t see a lot of things like this everyday.” He confessed to you “And with times like these, we may as well enjoy these memories. Things ain’t gonna get easy from here on out. We got a lot ahead of us.” You looked to him in surprise and began to nod at his words.

The Drifter had a point, these were troubling times and these times were going to get worse.


End file.
